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Gunnison Gorge conservation area has wilderness, 14 miles of river

The National Landscape Conservation System began under former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt in 2000 but recently was strengthened and revitalized by the passage in March of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act.
Included in the act’s 27 million acres, roughly one-tenth of all BLM lands, are 850 individual sites encompassing national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, and national scenic and historic trails.

Among these are the Gunnison Gorge NCA consisting of 62,844 acres, of which 57,725 acres initially were designated in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area Act of 1999.

The area also includes the Gunnison Gorge Wilderness, 17,784 acres of public lands including 14 miles of the river, extending from the northwestern boundary of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park north to approximately a mile downstream from the confluence of the Smith Fork.